tweed river Weir fishway.

[Roo]

Myself and the missus were fishing in the upper tidal reach of the tweed river yesterday, on the midday high tide we went right up to the weir and found it overflowing plus appears to have a fishway installed now. I've never been right up to it before, Last time i was up this far we couldn't get near it as the tide was low and they were doing some work on it, so i presume this fishway is new. its on the far southern edge where all the new work was done. I guess the bass will have 1 less obstacle to negotiate to breed .

Couldn't help myself, had to have a flick at it while i was there to see if anything was lurking nearby, pulled 2, 25cm bream out of the eddy next to it and had several more hits with out hookup. I was a bit surprised to find the bream sitting in the fully fresh water flowing over the weir. you could see them feeding on the green weed. No Bass there, had several hits further down stream that may have been either bass or bream, had a big gold flash smack & miss the hooks under one of the best overhanging trees and got a few flathead too, mostly small fellas but one nice keeper @ 48cm. Had a fish pinch my new lure on second cast of the day....the loop knot came undone was using a twisted leader and hadn't really thought about how to attach my lure. Hung around the area for about 15mins and had a bit of a look about, found the lure floating happy days. tied it back on with a uni knot which held with no probs.

Probably not allowed to fish anywhere near a weir or fishway but there were others fishing from the weir itself and i couldn't see any signs saying otherwise. Is it a No No?
Cheers Roo.

[fish05]

im intrigued by the bream and the flatties being up that far but it happens in the brissy river too not that i have a problem with it. Dissapointing you couldnt get any bass but at least you got something, what lures did the damage? cheers chris

[roydsy]

Roo, I still haven't found those elusive monster bass up there. Good effort for trying mate.

Looks like we might be moving down to pottsville, putting in some offers this arvo so fingers crossed. Keep you posted.

Might be time to start looking for some jacks now that things are starting to warm up.

thanks for the report

[Little grey men]

Always a good feeling when a lost lure decides to come back home.

[Roo]

The water was well and truly fresh, right back to murwillumbah, when we got home, i couldn't find even the slightest trace of salt on the boat or motor. I still gave the trailer and motor a flush tho'. The lure that got pinched and then returned was a Heddons Clatter tadpolly. but the flatties and the bream liked almost any plastic cast to the edge and either slow rolled or hopped back into the deep. The keeper came on an unknown plastic from a show bag. I called it the clubbie as it was a curl tail grub with yellow body and red tail. unfortunately I lost it to a sunken tree a bit later.

Hey Roydsy, good luck with the house hunting. I went past your place(old place?) and didn't recognise it with the Carport closed in. No big bass for me either, looks like they'll be able to get up and down to the salt tho' which will be a great benefit to the future populations. We've got the odd red devil up there too!, only little fella's. looking forward to jack season too!!
cheers, roo.

[Toppy]

Hey Rod, good to see a post from a place I've been hanging to fish all winter. Sorry to hear it was a non event with the bass not playing the game etc... Franco also had a trip there a few weeks back with similar results, so its probably not just you!!!!!! :-)
Have you fished upstream of the weir in the fresh lately? I've been wondering if that rain has flushed out the weed yet.

Cheers
Toppy

[zedjack33]

Some fish do head up into fresh to get rid of parrasites and for feeding purposes.

Sounds like a good spot for a fishway if their is a congregation of sih happening their. I would interested in knowing what what other fish where hanging around. I would say the bream where being oprtunistics feeders at the entrance of the ladder. Have seen forkies doing the same thing, just munching away at the entrance.

I would say that it would be illegal to fish the area................it's like shooting fish in a barrel. And the guy's on the weir, well they are on private property and would be in deeeeep sh!t if caught............fishing within 200m of a barreir, tresspassing and vandalism (depending if they jumped fences to get in).

We have the same issues here (Bundy) and surrounds, also depends if they are indigenous, but they tend to use nets.


Cheers Zedjack33

[roydsy]

Clarrie Hall is back at 100% now so probably let some water out and things should start to fire up again on the tweed river.

I have 2 weeks holiday, so might be time to invest some hours into finding those big bass.

[Roo]

Below and above dams and weirs, All fishing, All year, Varied distances, Limits usually shown by signs or contact your local fisheries office.

your onto it Zedjack, i found the above in the new NSW fisheries Booklet. I looked around for signs, but couldn't find any. Oh well.

Toppy, there was a bit of small weed(the reddish stuff that hangs about on the surface)coming over the weir. I was fishing from the bank only a K or 2 upstream from the weir a few weeks ago, there were heaps of mullet.....and something chasing them that was far too large and silver to be a Bass.....we were calling it for a jew and then wondering how on earth they got up there. I guess the fishway solved that problem.
Cheers, Roo

[marty_z]

Roo,

How far up the Tweed is the weir? I have started to explore the Tweed in the last 12 months but have only got as far as Condong.

If I wanted to have a look at the weir (and surrounding area) what is the best ramp to use, and what sort of fishing is best (ie poppers, sp's, etc). You mentioned several species - are these the comon ones there?

Thanks

Marty

[jamie martin]

try fishing in the freshwater above the weir, you can launch a boat from the park at bynagnum bridge, the weed has eased up and the fish are there, also some monster koi carp about 90 cm long , i've couted 10 of them one day. this would have to be the best bass spot on the tweed river for numbers of fish.
p.s. the freshwater section is electric outboards only as its murwillumbah's drinking water.

[Roo]

Marty,
We launch from murwillumbah. from the old highway turn left over the bridge and follow till along the river, you'll find it. the ramp is ok but best to have mid to high tide unless you have 4wd to pull the boat out. all concrete just that the slope shallows out before dropping into deep and you'll have most of the car on slime cover concrete at low tide....the weir is only a few K's up from here. lots of spots to fish on the way. the species mentioned are what we have caught in the few trips we've done.

Jamie, are those Koi you saw silver? we spotted something nosing around the bank last week.....seemed almost tame! we were talking to an elderly lady walking along the bank and she mentioned that there were carp in the river when she was a young lass.

cheers, roo.

[jamie martin]

hi, orbyroo ! yes there are silver koi in there. the first koi i saw was silver and as it was swimming near my lure i thought it was the worlds biggest bass. 5 minutes later i saw an orange one and realised the worlds biggest bass was really a silver koi. i saw 5 koi yesterday 26/9 they seem to follow a lure sometimes but just have a look and swim away. even though should i accidently foul hook one i would like to catch one.

[rabbitohbill]

I gotta get to the other side of that weir, Its either the salt side or the dam for me. I just got myself a 2 man indian canoe at the right price with exactly that in mind.
Just head for the snags once its in at the Byangum ramp?

[Roo]

get amongst it. a canoe would be ideal from Byangum. you can either head up the tweed or the oxley rivers from there.